Media economics research: Accessing and...

This chapter describes and reflects on official and non-official statistics as data sources for media economics research. To this end, it outlines and lists different types of data source, their informative value, and their potential limitations. The focus is on industry associations, market research firms, and financial databases as non-official sources and on the peculiarities of data generation and statistical processing by official sources. In addition, a distinction is made between a market and an industry perspective of media economic research, since the media can be quantified at different levels and to different extents depending on the approach chosen, and correspondingly different questions can be addressed. By considering the potential and the limitations of both official and non-official statistical data, and concluding with some premises that should be considered when using them, this chapter provides researchers with an overview of resources that are potentially relevant to their specific research.